DARKEST ERA INTERVIEW

Interview by Katherine Tullett

We managed to have a quick catch up with DARKEST ERA just before they go on stage to support Alestorm tonight at O2 Islington Academy, London.

Touring with Alestorm must seem pretty big for you guys, how do you feel about that?

Ade: It’s awful! They’re a bunch of lowlifes and vagabonds. Everything I expected and less.

No, [laughs] it’s been amazing. Pretty much every show has been selling out.

Is it scary playing to lots of sold out shows?

A: Yeah, but it’s like good scary, if you know what I mean. There’s a little bit of nerves but mainly excitement. There are ravenous crowds and they’re giving a great reaction so I love it.

David: I find that it’s better to play to a crowd like this because I feed off the energy the crowd’s giving back to me so playing to a full room is infinitely less nerve wracking then playing to a crowd of 5 people. So it’s been pretty satisfying so far.

Keeping with the apparent theme of pirates, how has that affected tour life? Has anyone really embraced the pirate lifestyle?

A: Of course! This is the Drunken Bastards tour, not the Quiet Competent tour. It hasn’t been totally crazy; no one’s in jail or anything or ended up in the river.

D: Or hijacked a taxi with a knife and dumped it in the woods.

A: No, it’s been a lot of fun, there’s been a few things that we probably shouldn’t have done…

This is a sold out show, how do you feel playing the last night of the tour to a sold out London venue? Have you played London before and what was it like?

D: We’ve never played in London before and the only experience I have ever really had with London gigs is as a punter with a couple of gigs in Camden. I found, at one of the last ones which was Hail Of Bullets a couple of years back, that the crowd were very stand-offish. Very arms-folded brigade. They’d all obviously paid to be there, to see Hail Of Bullets and they put on an amazing show but everyone was just sort of standing, waiting to be impressed with their arms folded, but I think with Alestorm probably attracting a younger, more fun-loving crowd it should be different.

A: With it being a sold out show, I reckon it’s going to be pretty cool tonight.

So you’re fairly new to the scene, have you had any fun recording experiences and do you plan on recording any time soon?

A: Our debut album is just out on Metalblade, it came out last February. We recorded that in a studio in Wales and it was an unbelievable experience. The studio has a great legacy, producing amazing records with quality production. We were just surrounded by fields and sheep and things for 2 weeks so we felt right at home. Right up in the mountain with no body to bother you. Just mad farmer neighbours. We’re probably going back there later on this year to record the next album.

Was your album well received, again considering the fact you are fairly new?

D: Very much so. Even the level of sales we were expecting compared with what we actually achieved was several times more. It was so much better than we were expecting so we really couldn’t be disappointed in any way. We didn’t expect to wake up and be told that we’d sold a million records. Small expectations.

A: The critical response was very good. It appeared in a couple of magazines in ratings charts which was unbelievable and no one really expected that. I think maybe because it’s a little bit different we thought it wouldn’t do well but once people got they idea I think they really enjoyed it. Yeah, killer response.

Do you have plans to be touring on your own or as headliners any time soon?

A: Not a headlining tour just yet, but we’ll be building towards that. We have a few other things lined up around mainland Europe and Germany. We’ll do some more touring for a little bit before we introduce ourselves to that market. Once we’ve done that and maybe got a new album out, we might put ourselves out there for a headline tour.

D: It’s mainly about building that profile first. It’s better to start small and get bigger. It’s a much better way to get that kind of profile by doing something like we’re doing at the minute. If a quarter of the people we play to now like what they hear and come back, it’ll be more effective than going and doing a headlining gig that no body shows up to.

Is there anything else you would like to add or any words of wisdom for the metal rules readers?